1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to high capacity feeders. More particularly, it relates to a feeder positioned at the discharge end of a conveyor that is adapted to enable a a straight through path of travel in the direction of travel of articles carried by the conveyor or to enable a ninety degree change in said direction of travel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When redirection of articles carried by a first conveyor belt is required, the conventional method is to position the trailing (receiving) end of a second conveyor belt at the leading (discharge) end of the first conveyor belt and to position the second conveyor belt at the desired angle relative to the first conveyor belt.
This procedure requires a second conveyor belt and substantial downtime as the second conveyor belt is positioned in cooperating relation to the first conveyor belt.
There are times when articles carried by the first belt need to be redirected to their original, straight through direction, thereby necessitating the removal of the second conveyor belt and restoring the system to its initial configuration.
When requirements for a change in direction are frequently followed by requirements for the initial configuration, a considerable amount of time is spent with the repeated addition and removal of the second conveyor belt.
What is needed, then, is a means for quickly redirecting conveyed articles from a first direction to a second direction and back to the first direction as frequently as required in the substantial absence of prolonged downtime during the changeover from one arrangement to another.
Conventional conveyor belts have a fixed length. However, applications sometimes require that a belt be lengthened or shortened by a relatively small amount such as a foot or a few feet. The conventional solution to this problem is to install a longer or shorter conveyor belt as needed. Such obvious solution consumes time and money. Specifically, such solution requires ownership of at least two conveyor belts of differing lengths. Each belt uses space when not being used.
What is needed is a conveyor belt construction that enables a conveyor belt to be lengthened or shortened in a brief amount of time. Such an adjustable length conveyor belt would not have the limitations of the prior art belts.
Yet another problem associated with feeders is their tendency to malfunction if the articles being fed thereinto are not perfectly shingled with respect to one another. For example, if envelopes are being fed into a feeder and an edge of an envelope juts out from the stack of envelopes, it will not be able to pass through the feeder and a jam will occur. This causes downtime and the concomitant loss of productivity. Accordingly, a human operator must continually monitor the articles being feed into the feeder and straighten them into a properly shingled stack on a frequent basis.
Thus, there is a need for an automated means that would maintain the articles being fed into the feeder in a properly aligned, shingled stack so that no articles jut out from the stack as said articles enter into a feeder.
However, in view of the prior art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how the identified needs could be fulfilled.
The long-standing but heretofore unfulfilled need for a feeder that can be quickly redirected between a straight through configuration or a ninety degree turn is now met by a new, useful, and nonobvious invention. The novel feeder capable of redirecting the path of travel of an article as said article is discharged from a conveyor means includes a conveyor system adapted to carry articles along a first path of travel and a rotatably mounted feeder positioned at a discharge end of the conveyor system. The rotatably mounted feeder is adapted to receive articles as they are sequentially discharged from the discharge end of the conveyor system.
The rotatably mounted feeder has a first position in line with the first path of travel so that articles adapted to be carried by the conveyor system along said first path of travel continue to follow said first path of travel upon being discharged by the conveyor system and entering into the feeder. This is the xe2x80x9cstraight throughxe2x80x9d configuration of the feeder.
The rotatably mounted feeder has a second position at a right angle to the first path of travel so that articles adapted to be carried by the conveyor system along the first path of travel are redirected into a second path of travel that is disposed at a ninety degree angle relative to the first path of travel upon being discharged by the conveyor system.
The novel feeder thereby eliminates the need for a second conveyor system to accomplish redirected travel. Moreover, the time required to re-configure the redirecting device from the first position to the second position is nominal.
A locking means selectively locks the redirecting device into the first and second positions.
When a plurality of rectangular articles such as envelopes are carried by a conveyor system, they may be positioned atop a conveyor belt in a longitudinal or transverse position. When longitudinally disposed, the longitudinal axis of an envelope is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the conveyor belt means. When transversely disposed, the longitudinal axis of the envelope is positioned at a ninety degree angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the conveyor belt means.
Accordingly, longitudinally disposed articles occupy a greater longitudinal extent of a conveyor belt means than the same number of transversely disposed articles of the same size. An operator therefore can spend less time loading the belt when rectangular articles are transversely disposed atop the conveyor belt means.
It may be advantageous to feed transversely disposed articles straight through the feeder and to feed longitudinally disposed articles at a right angle to the conveyor belt means. Such re-positioning of the feeder may require that the conveyor belt be lengthened or shortened. A need to change the length of the conveyor may also arise not as a function of the longitudinal or transverse positioning of the envelopes or other articles being fed into a feeder but as a function of the size of the article alone. Thus, if a first plurality of transversely disposed envelopes of a first width are followed by a second plurality of transversely disposed envelopes of a different width, the conveyor belt may require lengthening or shortening at the end of the first plurality.
The novel adjustable length conveyor means includes a table having a leading, discharge end and a trailing, loading end. A fixed position trailing roller means is positioned at a trailing end of the table. A leading roller means has an extended position remote from the leading end of the table and a retracted position proximal to the leading end of the table. A primary roller means has a fixed position that is between the trailing roller means and the leading roller means. A secondary roller means has an extended position remote from the primary roller means and a retracted position proximal to the primary roller means.
The extended position and the retracted position of the secondary roller means is between the leading roller means and the primary roller means.
A conveyor belt has a path of travel that extends from the trailing roller means, atop the table to the leading roller means, and below the table to the primary roller means. It then wraps around the primary roller means and extends to the secondary roller means. It wraps around the secondary roller means and returns to the trailing roller means.
The path of travel of the conveyor belt that extends atop the table from the trailing roller means to the leading roller means has a first length when the secondary roller means is in its retracted position and the leading roller means is in its extended position. The path of travel of the conveyor belt that extends atop the table has a second length when the secondary roller means is in its extended position and the leading roller means is in its retracted position. The first length exceeds the second length so that an article transported by the conveyor belt travels a first distance atop the table when the secondary roller means is in its retracted position and the leading roller means is in its extended position and so that an article transported by the conveyor belt travels a second distance less than said first distance when the secondary roller means is in its extended position and the leading roller means is in its retracted position.
Significantly, an operator may adjust the position of the leading roller and the secondary roller easily in a short amount of time. The leading and secondary rollers need not be fully extended or fully retracted but may be positioned at any number of operable positions between their fully extended and retracted positions. To prevent slack from appearing in the conveyor belt, an adjustment of one of the movable rollers must be matched by an equal but opposite adjustment of the other movable rollers. For example, if the leading roller is retracted three inches, the secondary roller must be extended three inches.
High capacity feeders often jam because the articles fed through them are stacked imperfectly, often with an edge of an article jutting from the stack or articles. Such an imperfectly aligned article may appear every few articles. This problem is addressed by providing a vibrating device that bears against the articles as they enter the feeder. The vibrations are of relatively high frequency so that the friction force between contiguous articles in a stack of articles is broken. In this way, an edge that may be jutting out is brought into alignment with the other articles in the stack because substantial removal of the friction force allows the misaligned article to feed into an alignment area with substantially no resistance offered between contiguous articles. Thus, each article flows or slides easily with respect to its contiguous articles because of the vibrations and alignment takes place. The vibrating means includes a wall tilted at an angle that imparts shingling to the articles so that they exit a hopper area of the feeder one at a time.
An important object of this invention is to provide a rotatably mounted high capacity feeder that is positionable at the discharge end of a conveyor system.
A closely related object is to provide a feeder that is quickly and easily re-configured to enable articles carried by a conveyor belt to change directions.
A more specific object is to provide a feeder that changes a path of travel of conveyed articles from a longitudinal path of travel to a transverse path of travel.
Another important object is to provide an adjustable length conveyor belt.
A closely related object is to provide a conveyor belt that does the work of a plurality of belts of differing lengths.
Another object is to provide an adjustable length conveyor belt that can be adjusted in length in a short period of time to minimize downtime.
Still another object is to provide a means for aligning misaligned articles into shingled relation to one another as they enter into a feeder.
These and other important objects, advantages, and features of the invention will become clear as this description.proceeds.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the description set forth hereinafter and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.